[malermeister]

When the problem is "real", it will be too late for solutions. We need to do something right now. Besides, I'd argue the problem is starting to be "real" right now. California, Australia, Siberia and Greece were on fire this year, Germany had historic floods and the East Coast keeps getting devastated by hurricanes.

I also disagree with the tactic of shifting responsibility to the individual to avoid doing anything where it actually matters. My individual contributions to climate change are negligible, this is a collective issue. We need to get industry and corporations in check and the only way we can do that is with heavy regulation.

[throwawayboise]

You're not wrong, but I'm being realistic about human nature. People are not going support heavy regulations that make their lives more difficult and expensive, if they are working 5 or 6 days a week to pay bills and support a family. Some theoretical problem 20 years from now is not high on their list of concerns.

[malermeister]

Might this be an indicator that democracy is no longer fit for our times and we need an authoritarian technocracy to save ourselves? Maybe the Chinese are onto something there? Their system obviously has flaws, but they do get to make unpopular changes for the common good while Congress does nothing of the sort...

[dcow]

Are wildfires a result of climate change? I though they just happened naturally and since we stopped doing controlled burns have gotten worse. I’m not disagreeing with your general point, there are plenty of signs we should be acting now. I’m just always surprised when wildfires get linked to climate change.

[Swenrekcah]

I think the point is the regions that already had them get them worse, and some regions that didn’t have them now get them.

What global warming does is destabilise the equilibrium we had in the global climate system, and one of the outcomes of that is more extreme weather. That means for example longer and drier droughts which obviously contributes to wildfire risk.

[mechanical_bear]

We are on fire every year. Gross mismanagement has made it worse.